ESPN takes an alarmingly long look at the effort to get Robert Kraft into the Hall of Fame

From time to time, ESPN.com will publish an old-fashioned, Continued-from-page-5 #longgrad. Usually, a lot of good stuff is carefully tucked between phrases and clauses and descriptions and, obviously, at times, filler.

I have no problem with #longgrad. (I've written more than a few books.) But it can't be long just for the sake of being long, triggering attaboys and huzzahs from fellow writers who will praise it blindly, often without, you know, reading it.

The latest ESPN.com #longread feels long. It seems basically pointless. It's about chronically failed attempts Get Patriots owner Robert Kraft into the Hall of Fame.

Should she? yes Should he care that he doesn't? In my opinion, no.

Through 24 years of closely covering the NFL, I've come to consider the Hall of Fame exactly what it is. A museum in Canton, Ohio that becomes home to the NFL for two days in August and which annually benefits class members to raise as much money as possible for the museum and the surrounding community.

The selection process is flawed and incomplete, evidenced by the fact that the rules are constantly changing. Also, and as Deion Sanders has made clear in the past, a lot of people get into it.

Most importantly, a Hall of Fame that celebrates individuals defies the notion that football is the ultimate team sport.

But, yes, craft should be in the bust. He laid the foundation for one of the greatest runs of excellence in league history, hiring Bill Belichick and drafting Tom Brady and finding a way to make it work for two decades.

The most newsworthy nugget comes from a secondhand account that underscores the rivalry between Kraft and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

“He hasn't been to the NFC title game in two decades and he gets in?” Kraft called “a faithful one,” as explained in the story. “How does it work?”

It works because Jones made it work. To date, Kraft has not. It's not clear how much he's trying.

He really shouldn't care. He knows what he has done. Patriots fans know what he did. Those who appreciate and understand the history of the game know what he has done.

That said, he'll get in eventually. Whether it is under the current rules or the next rules or to finally open the floodgates to correct all the wrongs done by ignoring those who should be there, he will step in. Hall of Fame

As he should be. Even if he doesn't care.